My new Sun Conure

[jfulton123]

Hello,

After being a cockatiel owner for 15 years, I decided that I wanted to get a sun conure. My wife and I went to the local pet store and interacted with the young sun conures they had for sale, and they seemed like they would make awesome pets. Since we already knew someone that had a 2-year-old male sun conure that was no longer wanted, we decided we should adopt hers instead of buying a new one because she felt like he needed more attention.

2 Days ago we brought Tiki home and put him into a brand new cage. He has been very nice to me so far. Although he tries to bite me if I reach into his cage to pick him up, if I take the top of his cage off he will climb to the top and let me pick him up. Once I pick him up, he is calm and seems happy when I talk to him and give him treats. He seems like he does have a sweet side. My wife on the other hand, he hates her. He retreats to the opposite side of the cage to where she is standing. I was holding him on my hand earlier today, and my wife tried to slowly reach for him to jump on her finger and he bit my hand pretty hard and drew blood. I know he didn't try to seriously hurt me, but his warning upset my wife. Even though I tried to tell her its only the 2nd day and he's just not used to her yet, she is convinced that our new bird will hate her forever.

I really like him but my wife wants to just return him back to the original owner. Do you guys think if we kept him he would ever warm up to her? I remember reading online somewhere that birds sometimes pick only one family member that they like and then hate everyone else. I would appreciate any suggestions or comments. Thank you

-Jon

 

[MikeyTN]

The reason he bites you is to let you know he feels threatened. He feels threatened by you allowing her to try to pick him up.

She needs to play with him alone without you. Preferably in a neutral spot like on a stand. It takes time and patience, she can't expect a bird to do what you want them to do right away. That's with any bird, even the one at the shop.

The Nanday Conure that's with my best friend now, she used to bite me and attack me whenever my friend/roommate was around. But when he is not around, she's a perfect little bird that behaves good, do all her tricks for me, etc. The moment she hears him coming in the house. It doesn't matter where we're at, she flies off right to him. And I can not touch her at all. So I only play with her when he's not around. She does not leave him at all. She sits on him all night long if he lets her.

So basically if she can have a one on one time with him, it would be the best. Is Tiki clipped? During this process, it's probably best to have him clipped. It's easier to train when they rely on you solely to pick him up. Let her offer him treats when he does good for her.

Welcome to the forum and I wish you guys the best with Tiki!!!

 

[Mike]

Socialization and training. Those two activities make all the difference in how our birds act and react.

First step is you (the preferred one) need to start socializing the bird. This means your wife, kids, neighbors, etc should be slowly introduced to the bird. Have them drop a treat into his bowl while saying something in a calm and gentle voice. At the same time, you need to start distancing yourself. Don't disappear, but try to increase everyone else's exposure to the bird, while your's decreases. The goal is the get the bird equally comfortable with people other than yourself--especially your wife.

The next step is training your bird to treat your wife (and others) the same as it treats you. Even though the bird may readily step up for you, your wife will need to train the bird to step up for her as if the bird had no idea of what stepping up meant.

We can't "expect" behavior from our birds. We've got to "train" the behavior we expect from our birds.